Performing Department
ENVIRONMENTAL & POPULATION HEALTH
Non Technical Summary
It is well established that wildlife and domestic animals can serve as important sentinels of environmental and public health hazards in the air, water, and soil. There are many examples indicating the deterioration of marine environmental health, and many wildlife and domestic animal populations in the New England region showing real or potential indications of the impacts of exposure to novel diseases, contaminants or other environmental insults. For marine mammals and sea turtles, organized networks of observers monitor our coasts for stranding and mortality events, but no such infrastructure exists for marine birds. This vacuum is particularly consequential in the eastern U.S.A. and Atlantic Canada where many coastal bird populations are endangered and threatened, large volumes of oil transportation and commerce occur, and rising sea levels encroach upon gently sloping coast habitats critical to migrating and breeding birds. Seabirds are ideal sentinel species for
monitoring the relationship between marine and coastal health with wildlife and human health. Habitat alterations, contaminants, overfishing, oil spills, and other environmental factors increasingly jeopardize these species. The main objective of this project is to collect the baseline components necessary to predict where and what threats exist for seabirds, what resources are available to assess and counteract these risks to the health of other wildlife species and people.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The Massachusetts seabird project will form a portion of a larger Northeast U.S.A. and Atlantic Canada regional seabird study in cooperation with the North American Waterbird Conservation Plan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This project will provide important regional contaminant and mortality data. Knowledge of the causes of marine mortalities, the species affected, and their geographic distribution is critical in mobilizing public concern, allocating resources, and developing environmental policy in addition to providing early warning signs for potential public health issues. The goals of this projects are to develop a network for seabird researchers; maintain two databases, seabird biology/habitat and contaminants, as repositories for seabird research in Massachusetts; convene a regional workshop to develop plans for aquatic bird and habitat protection, oil spill prevention and planning; set priorities for future, collaborative, research; and produce a final
report based on the workshop complete with GIS maps and recommendations, also made available online.
Project Methods
In partnership with Manomet Observatory for Conservation Sciences, Tufts veterinary students summer interns will assist a staff research assistant to gather information from regional agencies and perform a literature search to obtain background biologic and distribution data for certain marine birds. Population estimates, habitat requirements, known disease outbreaks, cited mortality events, ecological threats, and anthropogenic threats as well as seasonal, breeding, and migratory distribution patterns for species of interest along our shores will be entered into a database. Our collaborators (Massachusetts Audubon Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife, Manomet Observatory for Conservation Sciences, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) have already agreed to share their data, libraries, and files with us. A second database will be constructed of regional oil shipping, pipeline, and distribution patterns, storage and
processing facilities; previous oil spill location; and data on contaminants and petroleum facilities. Once data are obtained, we will create seabird distribution, environmental contaminant sources, and oil transport/spill maps.